It is a subconscious level ad for the utility/value of the platform. You don’t need to be overt about the screenshot containing Lemmy by name. Any subtle details are all that is needed. This is all it takes to attract the most valuable people; simply show them that they are missing out on something useful. It is effective psy ops.
Me too, but not all are, and this place is hemorrhaging and getting smaller. This is one logical way to do several things. Think about all angles of what I am saying and what it means for all involved. If r/loli or (whatever it was) needed a moderator to grow early reddit, and that is what spaz did, I get it. I would have used a burner, but I get it, and am in a similar vain here. I’m not straddling, but I know many are. Motivating anyone to take a little more action here is a habit forming positive. Getting people thinking about posting unique content with value to them is another important angle.
How do you figure it’s getting smaller?
Speaking from just my experience, it seems to be getting more active over time. It’s happening slowly, but there’s definitely more interaction happening here then there was a few months ago.
There are less than a couple dozen posts an hour in the all feed for several hours a day now. There were many posts 6 months ago that would top 1k votes in 6 hours. Up until around February the top post in any 6 hour stretch of the all feed would top 700-800 votes. Over the last month there are many times that dips below 300-400. There are many times when there are less that 20 votes on any post within an hour at what should be peak US times. This is decreasing slowly and it has been this way for a long time.
Yeah, but do you really want a bunch of low quality shitposts?
I’ve been here like 3 days and I already love it.
Seems like people here aren’t just sheeple.
Quality>quantity my guy
Yeah, gonna have to agree on this. I’m brand new, fresh off of a permaban on reddit, and I’m already seeing far superior activity here.
Quality over quantity my man
Welcome
Whalecum
But what if we like it better this way?
Aside from one or two people that frequently posted in niche subs, and the legends like Sprog, everyone on Reddit felt like a stranger I was meeting for the first time.
Sure, more posts are nice, but in exchange for an endless supply of bullshit to occupy my brain, I’m seeing posts and comments from people I recognize and remember and I feel more “at home” and less like a visiting consumer.
There is always a turn over rate. Without an advertising mechanism, it is a slow death.
Also, note that last weekend was a long weekend off in Europe, maybe that influenced it
Interesting
That’s not true. The userbase has remained steady since July of last year. There are some up and down swings with posts, but some of it is seasonal, and some of it is just the normal up and down swings of a service. We’ll expect more users and posts as Spez continues to fuck up Reddit, and make it hostile to its users.
I’ve seen those numbers but they do not match real engagement.